POLICE OFFICER, WIFE CLAIM HARASSMENT

A city police officer and his wife have filed their promised lawsuit against the city, claiming that stationing the officer on the Miller Street beat constitutes harassment.

Officer Glenn Morron has been working on Miller Street since September 1996 without a cruiser or access to facilities.

The assignment, the couple claims in the lawsuit, has resulted in physical and mental distress, including what they claim is exposure to lead from lead-abatement work on the nearby Arrigoni Bridge.

The couple, who filed a notice of their intent to sue in February, say police officials posted Glenn Morron on Miller Street out of "personal animus." Named in the suit, filed Monday with the town clerk's office, are former police Chief George R. Aylward, Capt. Robert Clayton, and Officer Thomas Sebold, the chief's administrative aide.

City and police officials have denied the Morrons' allegations. When the couple filed their notice to sue in February, Mayor Maria Madsen Holzberg said the nature of being a police officer is inherently dangerous and she predicted the lawsuit would not succeed.